STANDARD PROCEDURE

A couple months ago I moved into a new rehearsal space here in Boulder. Driving down to the one I had been renting in Denver had been getting really expensive in gas, not to mention the time it took to get there. It took me a few weeks to find the new space, located in a spare studio room of a local theatre company. For all the musicians here, there is an surprising lack of rehearsal spaces for rent, which has made me extremely thankful for the space I'm in now. On most days I usually bike there in the morning and write for 2-3 hours before heading to work. It's a pleasant ride, with only a few intersections where I have to deal with traffic (Boulder has an lot of interconnected bike paths). Since I seem to enjoy routine these days, having this daily ritual has been rather satisfying. Dedicating this daily time to my creative endeavors has also allowed me to feel a bit less anxiety about their completion (although it's always there to a degree). In the past I've felt beholden to creative impulses, rushing to the studio or an instrument whenever some musical idea crept forth to pervade my consciousness. As time has passed, I've become aware that those ideas are always there, always nagging at me to free them from my mind, always battling for attention. I'm still young, but I have a difficult time seeing how they're ever going to stop. Freeing myself from that submission to creativity, especially on such a sporadic basis, has allowed me to appreciate the rest of life more fully, since there is so much out there to learn and enjoy. Perhaps I'll find a new configuration somewhere down the line that could be equally suitable and fulfilling. But for right now, this seems to be working...